February 2009 Archives

Today, we consider the abundance of horticultural one-hit wonders, and how G2 might be able to help you keep the one-hit wonder problem out of your plant product portfolio. 

How often has a single product captured the imagination of the entire industry, and then ... there was never a follow-up product, nor a line expansion.  All of the marketing dollars invested in developing a brand presence for a single product, and that investment could never be leveraged ... because there were no line expansions.  That's a one-hit wonder. 

Granted, sometimes expanding a single truly unique product is simply not possible because of genetic reasons.  Consider Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm'.  'Goldsturm' is a wonderful product.  Hardy, floriferous, grown and loved around the world.  But there's never really been a line extension made in this crop by anyone.  There are some very good genetic reasons for this.  Rudbeckia fulgida is apomictic, meaning that the seed it makes is virtually 100% like the seed (maternal) parent.  If you want to produce 'Goldsturm' from seed, this is a good thing: every seed produces a plant which is identical to the original parent plant.  But if you want to improve 'Goldsturm', if you want to breed a series of varieties around 'Goldsturm', if you want to develop line extensions based on 'Goldsturm' --- apomixis means that you are out of luck.  You cannot use 'Goldsturm' as a seed parent and have ANY of the seed incorporate genetic material from the pollen parent.  All seed produced on 'Goldsturm' is identical to the mother plant. 

Yes, there is the occasional 'Goldsturm' sport that appears to be different, but then gets lost.  Sometimes, the sport is even a real genetic change so that it is seed-transmissable, even through apomixis.  The Dupont Nursery release 'Early Bird Gold' may be one of these very rare events.  We've seen this variety in a garden center, but have not yet grown it ourselves. 

Campanula persicifolia is another good example of an unusual genetic phenomenon limiting the breeder's ability to improve existing varieties.  If you were to look at the chromosomes of C. persicifolia under a microscope, you would discover that the chromosomes actually form rings.  This does not interfere with the species ability to form viable seed, but it DOES limit the ability of the chromosomes to pair up during meiosis.  Without chromosome pairing, there is very little opportunity for crossing-over (recombination), and without recombination, there is no mixing of the genetic structure when you make crosses.  This is a serious limitation to effective plant breeding. 

Or the hardy perennial geranium 'Rozanne' a sterile interspecific hybrid of G. wallichianum x G. himalayense. 'Rozanne' was introduced by Bloom's of Bressingham.  This is how Bloom's describes the invention of 'Rozanne' on their website: "Donald and Rozanne Waterer collected seed from two geraniums growing as neighbors in their garden in Somerset, England. From the resultant seedlings, 'Rozanne' stood out as being exceptional, featuring stronger growth, larger flowers and leaves than their parent plants." The hybrid vigor observed by the Waterers in the seedling they eventually named 'Rozanne' is frequently observed in interspecific hybrids --- if you can get them to nick, and if the seedling survives. Many of the one-hit wonders in the horticultural world have resulted from this random nursery mating strategy.  "Random" is a good strategy for one-hit wonders, but it is not a good strategy for a sustainable series of product line extensions. 

One-hit wonders.  A constant challenge to the breeder, as well as to the marketing team. 

However ...

One of the reasons that we started G2 was to take "random" and turn it into "methodical".  To take the traditional nurseryman's 'Bee's Hybrid' process and turn it into a planned, somewhat predictable, much more scientific method of developing new products.  No, we are certainly not overlooking serendipity.  Or chance.  Or luck.  Or grace.  Indeed, we consider all of those to be significant components of the overall process of plant breeding, especially in herbaceous and woody perennial species. 

In the words of the first century Greek philosopher Seneca: "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."  We see G2's mission, in part, to enable large parts of the horticultural industry to move from being largely dependent on "random" for new product development to becoming "methodical."  For G2, in this context "methodical" means "with planning and preparation."  Study, experimentation, and trial runs.  Applying the traditional scientific method --- observe, hypothesize, test, change, repeat.  The more things you try, the more likely that you will observe something of value.  If you are prepared to see serendipity, the more likely it will occur. 

G2 might be able to help you create a series of well-matched line expansions to what might otherwise become one-hit wonders.  Not every independent plant breeder has the capacity or expertise to break through some of the genetic (or even conceptual) barriers which made the initial release so popular.  Before you throw your hands in the air and say "It just can't be done", give G2 a call.  True, there will be times when we agree with you that it can't be done.  But we may also see a path that you may have overlooked.  We may even be able to help move your product to that new path. 

It's worth the phone call.

Effective use of internal resources should always be part of your management discussions.  How can you develop more varieties?  How can you do this even faster?  How can you enable your breeding staff to be more productive?  In the current global economy, part of that answer needs to be outsourcing.  Unless you have unlimited internal resources, it is almost always more cost-effective to outsource the routine or repetitive portions of any project, and keep the creative tasks for your internal staff.  G2 is pleased to be able to bring outsourced contract breeding resources to the horticultural industries. 

Off-cycle seed increase:  Are you doing most of your generation advancement in the field each year?  Let G2 provide you with an additional generation each year by doing a cycle of seed increase in our greenhouses over the winter.  We can self or mass to your specifications, with or without data collection. 

Experimental hybrid production:  Do you need a few hundred seeds of each of dozens to hundreds of experimental crosses?  We may be able to help.  Send us your inbreds-in-development, and we can use our excess capacity to make your experimental hybrids for you.  And at the same time, of course, we could do an additional round of inbreeding in parallel.  No, we may not always have capacity available, but when we do, we would be pleased to make it available to you.   

Germplasm integration:  Consider working with G2 to Integrate new germplasm into your program's background.  No breeder likes to incorporate new germplasm into his or her program --- it is slow, expensive, and boring.  But every breeding program needs new blood if it is to continue to make genetic progress.  Why not outsource some of these germplasm enhancement needs to G2?  We can do the rough breeding, integrating new germplasm into your existing program, and then returning the lines to you with the new genetics incorporatedand ready for finish breeding and final selection.   

Demonstration of concept:  Have you ever wished that you had a mechanism to take that wild idea, regardless of where it came from, and just ... try it?  We encourage you to consider working with G2 on those "demonstration of concept" projects.  Let us attempt to develop your idea to a prototype stage, and then return the advanced germplasm to you for finish breeding.  Consider interspecific hybridizations, for example.  These are frequently possible, but with a very low rate of success.  Why burn your internal resources on these highly experimental projects?  Send them to us, and use G2's experience with making these kinds of wide crosses to determine if your idea might be feasible.  At worst, we fail.  At best, you know whether or not your wild idea can become a new product --- and have a very good idea as to the time and resources required to turn that idea into a product. 

G2 provides contract breeding services to the horticultural industries.  What does this mean?  One aspect of this service is that we conduct full-blown de novo product development for some of our clients.  You bring an idea to us.  G2 develops the product, from germplasm acquisition to ready-for-release final breeding and selection. 

For example, you may want to develop a vegetatively-propagated series of varieties in a crop which traditionally has been seed-propagated.  Consider the recent developments in Echinacea.  A decade ago, coneflowers were virtually all seed-produced.  Then Jim Ault at the Chicago Botanic Gardens, and Richard Saul at ItSaul Nurseries in Atlanta, GA, made interspecific hybrids between E. purpurea, E. paradoxa, and E. angustifolia.  These extended the color range of coneflowers to include reds and oranges, and generated a huge number of tissue-cultured and vegetatively-propagated varieties.  Seed into vegetative.  G2 has the experience and capabilities to enable you to do these kinds of long-term development projects, whether we complete the breeding, or whether we pass it back to your breeders in a rough state so that you can do the finish breeding under your conditions and control. 

Similarly, G2 can help you take a vegetatively-propagated crop, and determine whether it can be converted into a seed-propagated crop.  For example, consider the exceptional work which Dr. Ellen Leue at PanAmerican Seeds (a Ball Horticultural company) did with Angelonia.  Before PanAm's Serena series, angelonia was only a cutting-propagated crop.  Now, as a seed crop, angelonia can be produced from plugs and cuttings.  The grower has more options.  The market for this genus is more open in ways which benefit the grower and the consumer.  G2 has the experience and capabilities to enable you to expand the market for a vegetatively-propagated crop by expanding it into a seed-propagated one. 

Or, you may see an opportunity to improve the producibility of a crop, and thus give the grower an advantage.  Think about crops in which few of the existing varieties are well-matched.  Calibrachoa, for example.  Wouldn't your sales team be able to capture a larger share of the total calibrachoa market if your series was so well-matched that a grower could bench-run the entire crop.  All colors matched in height and PGR requirements (if any).  All colors matched in nutrient efficiency and environmental response.  All colors coming into bloom within a 3 day window under normal seasonal cycles.  All colors responding to a standard potting mix in the same way, allowing you to fertilize and irrigate the entire crop the same way. 

What about regal geraniums, Pelagonium xdomesticum?  What if you could produce a crop of regals to a schedule, with all colors blooming together.  With a rooting efficiency of >95%.  Needing no additional lighting or cooling treatments to induce flowering?  Which could be grown alongside your zonal crop, running at the same temperatures, in the same media, to the same schedule?   

These are the kinds of CR projects which get us excited at G2.  We can help you to develop these kinds of projects.  With our good clients, we appreciate the opportunity to brainstorm and vision with you so that we can better help you develop better plant products.

One of us at G2 (Rick) spent the middle part of his career building and managing a contract analytical chemistry laboratory.  In the pharmaceutical industry, this is described as an "analytical CRO", with "CRO" meaning "Contract Research Organization." 

What does this mean for G2?  First of all, I spent 18 years conducting and directing the contract research operations of my former business.  When I left that business, we had almost 100 employees, and had a reputation for being able to do very sophisticated analytical chemistry, fully under US EPA and US FDA Good Laboratory Practices.  We were accustomed to having no-advance-notice study inspections by these and other regulatory agencies.  Yes, at any moment, we had to be ready for on-site inspections by regulatory agencies, each of whom had the authority to shut your business down if they found something seriously out of compliance. 

For G2, this background experience instilled a deep understanding and appreciation of the process of conducting research under extremely tight confidentiality, where there were very high expectations re "paper trail".  As we trained our staff in confidential practices, the phrase we tried to instill was "If you don't document it, you didn't do it."  In a regulated CRO, that IS the standard. 

At G2, we try to instill similar expectations re confidentiality and documentation.  No, we are not GLP, nor are we regulated in the same way a GLP CRO would be.  However, the potential benefits of conducting our work in a GLP-like manner are obvious to us. 

Second, my 18 years of experience in regulated analytical chemistry provides us with a level of understanding of what is truly possible re natural product composition that may not be available anywhere else. 

Are you interested in increasing the yield of a particular natural product?  We can help, both with the breeding as well as the chemistry.  Although G2 does not currently provide analytical services, we have an extremely broad knowledge of the analytical laboratory community, and can direct you to an organization which would be able to serve you. 

Are you looking to change the specific composition of a plant-derived natural product?  Let G2 work with you to breed for that composition change.  The research process for such a change will require daily interaction between the breeder in the field, and the analytical laboratory doing the composition analysis.  G2's experience with both the genetics and the chemistry makes G2 an ideal partner for such a project. 

You didn't know that anyone could offer you this combination as a contract research service?  That's one of the reasons that G2 exists.  Let us work with you to increase the yield, and to improve the composition, of your plant-derived natural product.

One of us at G2 (Rick) has a long history of participating in the analytical chemistry associated with product registrations with the US EPA and/or US FDA.  All of this occurred as contract research (CR) projects during Rick's tenure with Centre Analytical Laboratories, which he and a partner then recreated into Exygen Research.  These years of industrial CR give G2 a unique perspective on the design and conduct of product efficacy studies for natural substances being registered for potential use on horticultural crops. 

If you are from the crop protection industry, the dietary supplement industry, or the natural products industry, I need to make something very clear.  G2 does NOT provide GLP services, neither in analytical chemistry nor in field trials.  GLPs (Good Laboratory Practices) are a tightly regulated section of Federal law which ensure that chemical and pharmaceutical product development produces products which are safe for use in humans.  The contract research organizations (CROs) which provide these services must conduct their contract services to these same GLP standards.  I did this for almost 20 years, and have a deep understanding of both the law and the practice.  Our QAU reported directly to me as management during most of this period. 

G2 does not work under GLPs.  However ...

We do conduct product efficacy trials when an appropriate opportunity arises.  For instance, because we choose to maintain G2's research farm in a sustainable manner, we do not conduct trials on experimental chemicals of synthetic origin.  Natural products, biological products, biostimulants, even pheromones --- yes.  Experimental synthetic pesticides --- no. 

Similarly, because our target markets have expressed a non-GMO position, we do not work with or trial GMO plants on G2's research farm.  No transgenics, no cisgenics, no GMOs.  We understand the science.  We understand the law re GMOs both in the US and around the world.  We recognize the penetration of GMOs into US field crop agriculture.  Nonetheless, our current markets have declared "No GMOs", and we respect that position.

What kind of product efficacy research will we conduct?  Organic fertilizer trials, either standalone or in comparison to synthetics (some of our research plots are not strictly organic).  Biostimulant trials.  Biological control trials, either greenhouse or field.  Planting product trials (mulches, irrigation, trellising).  All of these are conducted with scientific rigor and data collection.  All are conducted to G2's strict confidentiality protocols. 

Call us with your questions re product efficacy trials.  We'd welcome an opportunity to be of service.

Would you like to conduct variety trials on fields which are maintained to organic standards?  Would you like to broker seed varieties which were bred to perform under sustainable management practices?  G2 is committed to meeting those needs. 

One of the more unique aspects of G2's research facility is that our 20,000 SF greenhouse range is subdivided into 8 distinct zones, each environmentally isolated, and each controlled by our very sophisticated Argus environmental control software system. 

We decided early on in our planning that we wanted to be able to breed for performance under specific environmental conditions.  This demanded a good control system, in addition to multiple layers of heating / cooling / ventilation in the research greenhouses.  But still ... there is a large gap between planning / design and actual operational capabilities.  You decide to make a large investment in facilities infrastructure, and then can't know if it will actually work as designed for months to years. 

I can happily say that the systems we installed work.  Actually, they work far beyond our expectations. 

Our best example to date has been a complex environmental trial which we conducted for a client.  The crop was poinsettias, and the trial ran as a typical holiday crop for a retail grower.  Nine inch pots were stuck with a single-rooted cutting in August, and grown under a typical poinsettia protocol. 

Plants were grown as a standard holiday poinsettia crop (70F days / 68F nights) until 1 October 2008, then every two weeks, a subset of pots was moved into one of two cooler-than-average (and night) temperature zones. As the poinsettias came into holiday color, we took data on a weekly basis.

Our client learned a tremendous amount about the performance of their commercial varieties, of their experimental lines, and of their competitors' commercial varieties.  It was clear that our client has been breeding for energy-efficient poinsettias: poinsettias which can be grown at an average temperature 5 to 8 degrees F cooler than "normal".  More significantly, these same varieties can be grown at a minimum night temperature of 58 F, at least 10 degrees cooler than many growers run their poinsettia crops at night.

What did G2 learn?  We learned that we can operate adjacent greenhouse zones 2 to 3 degrees apart, and easily maintain that difference.  This means that we can breed a crop for a particular environmental condition, in season or out.  For example, if we wanted to breed tomatoes for low-light low-temperature performance (conditions experienced in a high tunnel in early spring or late fall), we could do both the breeding and trialing in our existing greenhouse facilities. 

G2's ability to push a crop's environmental envelope (while retaining both control and data collection abilities), and then select for performance at the edges of that envelope, provides our clients with a significant opportunity to develop new varieties bred specifically for those extreme conditions.  Do you need to minimize a vernalization requirement in a crop?  We can help you do just that.  Do you need to select for day-neutral performance?  We can help, year-round. 

What else might we be able to do for you using our sophisticated environmental controls?  Please contact us to discuss your trialing needs.  We look forward to responding to your Requests for Proposal (RFPs) re controlled environment trials and selection.

What does it mean when we say "G2 does contract research (CR)"?  Well, we do many kinds of things, just like most start-ups.  The next few posts will try and describe the breadth of CR services which G2 provides to the horticultural industries.

We are horticultural-scientists-for-hire.  A large portion of our annual CR workload is confidential comparison trials.  As simple as that statement is to make, nonetheless, each research trial seems to have its own unique identity. 

Confidential means just that.  We conduct our trials in a secure, isolated location: our research farm in central PA.  The farm is fenced to control access.  Visitors to the trials are accompanied by one of the G2 team while they are on-site.  Access to the research trials is limited by client: as a G2 client, you only have access to your varieties and the appropriate experimental controls.  In the greenhouses, we further isolate the trials by zones and privacy screens where appropriate.  Similarly, in the field, privacy screening is used as needed, but we attempt to isolate each client's projects in specific plots, and then separate the plots by enough distance that a visitor in one plot cannot observe details of what is occurring in an adjacent plot.  That said, unless otherwise instructed, we do not attempt to control ALL visibility between adjacent plots.  For example, you might be able to see that there are tomatoes in the plot adjacent to the one in which your trial is grown, but you are not going to be able to observe detailed differences between individual entries in that adjacent trial. 

Confidential also means that we make a significant investment in training our staff in G2's confidentiality practices.  Most of these are relatively simple.  For instance, our seasonal employees might know that we are growing many lettuce varieties for a client, but they would not know the client's identity.  They might even know why we are conducting the trial, if this is relevant to a particular task, but they would not be given access to information which we and the client would consider to be confidential. 

Confidential trials may be of your varieties in comparison to those of your competitor.  They may be of your experimental varieties to your existing varieties.  Or, you may choose to trial your breeding lines with us to determine how they perform in our Northeastern US location, which is likely to be very different from your other trialing locations.  This could enable you to choose better F1 combinations, or at a minimum, choose combinations which may be more consistent in performance across environments. 

Comparison is the key to a research trial, and the intent of a comparison trial is that you will be able to gather unique data about the performance of your experimental varieties both in our central PA location (when compared to other locations) and in reference to control varieties (typically varieties of known performance, or varieties expected to be "industry standards." 

For those firms which do not maintain research facilities in the Northeastern U.S., our location in central PA provides a unique opportunity in which to conduct confidential comparison trials. 

For perennial crops, you should know that G2's research farm is located on the line between USDA Zone 6a and 5b.  Over the past decade, the farm has only rarely seen temperatures below 0F.  However, a few weeks ago, early in the winter of 2008/2009, we dipped to minus-12F on one particularly bitter cold night.  Our location in the Buffalo Run Valley (there's a small stream called Buffalo Run at the base of the mountain, about 1500 ft away) is also quite windy.  We expect that exposed locations are going to perform more like a Z5B site, while protected locations are going to behave as Z6a. 

We conduct greenhouse as well as field trials.  The G2 research greenhouses are divided into eight separately-controlled environmental zones.  We recently completed a large poinsettia comparison trial in which three adjacent zones were run at "industry standard" average daily temperatures (i.e., for poinsettia production, this was 70F); 65F; and 62F.  Minimum night temperatures in the three zones were 68F, 63F, and 58F, respectively.  We could maintain these differences in adjacent zones without problem.  Charts of the temperature data were essentially flat for each zone. 

What kind of available capacity does G2 have for 2009?  Greenhouse space is already tight for the spring, but we currently have space available for the fall and winter.  Field space is available, both under shade (we've got 30,000 SF of shade structure available), and in open research plots.  Maximum available field space is about 5A, including a new 1A organic/sustainable plot we are converting from pasture to research plot once the ground thaws in the spring. 

Perennial crop trials need to be planned well in advance, but we have strip-plots available for perennials, both herbaceous and perennial. 

Please contact Kelly Uchneat to discuss your trialing needs.  We look forward to responding to your Requests for Proposal (RFPs) re confidential comparison trials.

We are asked frequently about the Craig pelargoniums, and what we are doing with them.  This is quite a long story, and is likely to cover multiple blog posts.

G2 is preserving the Craig pel collection by converting as many of the vegetatively-propagated varieties as we can into seed.  To do this, we are self-pollinating each variety until we collect at least 100 seeds.

When an individual plant is not pollen-fertile, we pollinate it with a sib, if one is available and if the sib is pollen-fertile.  In this way, we preserve most of the unique genetics contained in the individual variety. 

Here is a photo of a pollen-sterile Pelargonium.  Note the aborted anthers in each floret.  Rather than being bright orange as in a fertile anther, these are pale yellow, and shriveled.

When a particular variety is not pollen-fertile, and there is no sib available, we cross the variety to two unrelated commercials, of different colors, and different habits.  In this way, we preserve the unique genetics of each of the Craig varieties in two distinctly different genetic backgrounds. 

This is obviously a lot of work.  We've already been working on this for two years.  It appears that there is at least another year of preservation work to do before we are confident that we have done as much as can be done.  

Dr. Craig maintained active breeding programs in multiple Pelargonium species.  He bred zonal geraniums, tetraploid P. xhortorum.  Some of his most successful zonals included 'Misty', a truly uniquely-colored pink (PP7350), 'Jubilee', one of the best outdoor-performing zonal ever released (PP8089); and the top-selling Craig variety for many years, 'Juliet' (aka 'Risque') (PP6654).  All of these were released through the Oglevee organization. 

In order to protect his zonal inventions, Dr. Craig and Penn State obtained Plant Patents on them.  As part of the plant patent applications, Dr. Craig frequently provided detailed chromatograms of their unique pigment profiles.  I had the privilege of working with Dr. Masood Arjmand and Kevin Lloyd at Centre Analytical Laboratories during my Ph.D. days as they were developing these "pigment fingerprinting" analytical methods, and then applying them to the Craig pelargoniums.  At that time, these "pigment fingerprinting" projects were funded in part by the Ben Franklin program, an economic development organization funded by the state of Pennsylvania. 

This is probably a good point to tell you about what was probably the most significant variegated Pelargonium in the U.S. for many years:'Ben Franklin'.  'Ben Franklin' is a diploid xhortorum, just like most of the common seed-propagated geraniums.  It resulted from a cross between the European variegated cultivar 'Wilhelm Langeth' and 'Snowmass, a cross which was made in Dr. Craig's greenhouses in 1978.  'Ben Franklin' (PP6218) was released in 1988. 

Here is a picture of Ben Franklin.

We've got both 85-8-1 and 85-9-2 in the greenhouse making seed.  When we can spare an inflorescence, I'll take and post a good picture so you can see how rich this color is in the interspecific progeny. 

Some of you have asked why G2 conducts contract research (CR)?  The answer to that question is rather simple: it's a cash flow strategy. 

Remember those 100 licensed varieties in the first 10 years?  That's our product development target.  But it's more than that.  At the end of the first decade, we plan on covering G2's annual operating expenses out of licensing revenue (royalties).  But between now and 2017, we will depend on CR to cover most of our operating expenses. 

Stated differently, until the G2 pipeline is full, and licensing revenues are flowing, CR will provide the bulk of G2's cash flow.  Since filling the pipeline is expected to take 8 to 10 years, this makes G2's CR strategy a key part of the plan. 

To encourage companies in the horticultural trades to place CR projects with G2 --- when they might otherwise consider us as an upstart, err, start-up competitor --- we are linking G2's CR strategy directly to the development of our proprietary genetics. 

How?  We intend to offer first-look, first-choice for our proprietary genetics, the G2-bred products, to our CR clients.  If none of our CR clients choose to license a G2-developed product, we may then choose to take it to market directly. 

What does this mean to you? 

It means quite simply, that if you expect to license a G2-developed product in the future, you should be considering how to conduct CR with G2 in the present. 

This is a business, after all. 

How can this be? 

Doesn't G2 have to pay its employees? 

Why are your costs so much lower than ours?

Are you using mostly student labor?

These are all good questions, and yes, we do pay our employees.  No, our direct costs are not lower than yours.  In all honesty, our direct costs are likely to be higher than yours.  Yes, we utilize student labor, but only for seasonal/summer labor, or for paid internships.  But ... there are many ways to perceive value in contract research. 

Please realize that  G2 works simultaneously for multiple clients.  This means that our fixed costs are split among those multiple clients (as well as for our proprietary projects), and as a result, the fractional cost applied to any given client is much lower than if that cost needed to be carried by a single client.  That is the real comparison you need to make when you consider your internal fixed costs. 

In addition, the staff of a small CR organization like G2 tends to be more task-focused than your internal staff.  This is a simple function of organization size: the larger the organization, the more likely servicing the organization is to distract your research staff from focusing on their routine --- but primary --- responsibilities.  In a small organization like G2, we have the luxury of being able to focus on our work with few distractions.  G2 has dedicated staff to serve you.  G2 has dedicated facilities and infrastructure to serve you.  If you are one of our CR clients, our work is your work.  

What does CR cost?  Considerably less than the comparable internal R&D cost.  I can state that unequivocably, based on more than 20 years of experience in providing CR as a service to multiple industries.

However ...

There is a catch in that statement.  Comparing internal costs to external costs (or CR prices) can easily become a comparison of apples-to-oranges.  CR costs at any contract shop are lower than your internal costs only when you compare fully-loaded costs.  Direct and indirect, including an appropriate share of organizational overhead. 

What does this really mean?  It means that outsourcing makes good financial sense during those periods when you are staff-limited (when planned workload exceeds internal resources) and unwilling or unable to hire the appropriate internal talent.  Outsourcing makes good financial sense when you are facility-capacity-limited (when planned workload requires more greenhouse or field space than is available).  And it makes good financial sense when your internal expertise is lacking, or on a learning curve because of an unexpected turnover in staffing. 

And if outsourcing makes good financial sense during those crisis periods, when one of your critical resources is limited, does it not also make good business sense to establish a strong working relationshop with a CR shop like G2 before the need actually arises? 

We think so, too.